>> you are watching the "journal" from berlin. >> these are our top stories -- pope benedict bids farewell to huge crowds the day before he formally steps down as leader of the italian catholic church. >> the italian prime minister cancels an appointment with germany's main opposition candidate. >> in german soccer, dortmund prepared to defend their title against high-flying bayern

munich. it seemed that the lord was sleeping -- that was today's emotional farewell message from pope benedict xvi as he acknowledged the rough seas that marked his time as head of the catholic church. >> it was his final public address before retiring, speaking to pins -- tens of thousands of faithful, he referred to the struggles enjoy of his papacy. >> we will be going live to rome in a moment to get more detail on the speech, but first, a closer look, and the momentous day for catholics around the world. >> a final farewell to the faithful -- people flocked to the vatican to bid goodbye to " benedict, both as the head of the catholic church and as a bishop in rome. the pope took his time. this vehicle stopped several times so he could less children.

an estimated 150,000 worshipers had congregated at st. peter's square. they had come from all over the world to be here, to hold up messages of banks and pay reference to the outgoing pontiff. among them, many from the pope's native germany. benedick was the first german pope in half a millennium. a brass band played the anthem of the very where the pope was born and raised. in his address, he spoke candidly about his almost eight- year papacy. he drew an analogy from the bible, saying there had been days of sunlight, but there had also been stormy waters and head winds when the lord seemed to be sleeping. the pope also directly addressed

worshipers, expressing his gratitude for supporting his decision to step down. he said he would remain in the service of the church. >> i thank you all for respecting and understanding my decision, the decision i have taken for the good of the church. i will continue to accompany the church through prayer. >> there were moments of humility and moments of emotion as he found warm words for his followers. alabama we remain, dear friends, close to one another in prayer. i send my greetings to you all from all of my heart. god bless you. then the audience clearly appreciated the appearance, including the cardinals for whom a successor will be chosen. his papacy ends in just under 24

hours. then he will no longer be pope benedict and assume the title roman pontiff emeritus. >> how would you rate the status of the church as the pope is leaving? has it gotten better or worse? >> it varies a great deal from continent to continent. in europe and in north america, the church appears to be shrinking. membership, of course, is one indicator and not necessarily the only one, of course, but one indicator of the church's vibrancy and life. on the other hand, in africa, and asia, for example, the church is growing at quite a remarkable rate. in the last 100 years, for example, the catholic church in africa has grown enormously. there are now more than 200 million christians in africa, and they have very little

understanding for the demands in europe and north america for reforms within the church. i live myself for many years in southern africa, and the church there is very vibrant. >> what can we take away as benedict's legacy? what were his most important achievements? >> of course, he is a very profound and prolific writer. i think his legacy will be mainly in his writings. particularly in the way that he has explored the question of the meaning of life. that, of course, is a question that concerns all of us sooner or later. the latest, of course, is when we are confronted by death. he does not do it in a way that necessarily appeals to a mass audience. that, of course, is a certain weakness in his position. he tends to be rather intellectual. people who are prepared to look

into the questions of the meaning of life, that there's more to life than simply having fun -- of course, having fun is important, but if there is more to life than that, more than one in from one life style and into the next and amassing material goods -- then there is a great deal of food for thought in his writings. i think that will be his major legacy. >> some people believe there is much more to the pope's resignation and frail health, that the scandals that rocked the church played a big role. what is your take on that? >> i think there is a connection. i think that the scandal within the church, predictably of child abuse, has weighed very heavily on him. one has seen him age quite dramatically, and i think that that is probably also the concern and the pain that he has felt. on the other hand, he also today, as you mentioned, referred to the lord being apparently asleep in the boat, a

reference to the biblical story of the storm where the disciples panicked because they saw jesus asleep in the boat, and when he woke up, he said to them -- he calmed the storm and said, "oh, ye of little faith." it was a positive analogy he was making, saying that this was an opportunity to renew one's faith. >> while the pope leaves his position suddenly vacant, there's a lot of political uncertainty. the nation's leaders are trying to negotiate a coalition government after an inconclusive parliamentary election. >> while they do that, some comments from germany's main opposition candidate for chancellor have not really helped the situation. he was meant to meet with the italian president today. he is on a state visit to germany but canceled the planned dinner with steinbrueck after

steinbrueck described the candidates to be italian -- italy's leader as clouts. >> that is the latest in a series of missteps from peer steinbrueck, since he was named candidate to challenge angela merkel. >> those remarks lead many to ask if he is the best candidate for the job. this is the comment that so offended the italian president. >> to a certain extent, i am appalled at kid -- that two clowns have one -- won. one is a professional clown who will not be offended by this term, mr. grillo, and the other is definitely a clown with extra testosterone. >> let's get more on this from simon young in our parliamentary

studios. how much of a liability is he becoming for his party and his campaign? >> he can become a liability if the voters believe that talk like this is a sign of poor judgment rather than just straight talking. peer steinbrueck has tried to relaunch his campaign after a faltering start last year, when he made comments, suggesting that the pay for the chancellorship should be increased at a time when a lot of public servants are facing pay freezes. the thinking is he might be able to get away with, like this as an opposition politician, but as chancellor if he became chancellor, he certainly could not, and many people even within his social democrat party wonder if he can really make that transition. >> there are a lot of people here who are genuinely worried about the situation in italy. >> that is absolutely right. a lot of germans, a lot of

politicians are extremely concerned about the prospect of political impasse in italy and in particular what that means for the euro and the possibility that the italian government might not continue down the path of reform. we have seen a lot of concern. the stock market dropped sharply in response to that election in italy, so i think the comments have touched a nerve. a lot of people agree with the content of what he said, even if they do not like the undiplomatic way that he expressed himself. >> thank you for the insight. the political stalemate in italy certainly unsettled investors, but european markets have staged a convincing recovery. >> a broad recovery for a change. investors are still worried about italy, the many uncertainties that the election result there portends for the future, but there was good news

as well -- for example, from the european economy. the business climate among corporations better than expected in the european union. from the united states, then bernanke made news, confirming that the central bank there, the fed, will continue to support the u.s. economy with so-called quantitative easing, basically printing money in order to kickstart the economy. italy itself had some good news. it sold 10-year bonds. the investment amount was met by investors. italy did have to pay higher interest rates but not quite as high as people had feared. >> you can see bounce back on the board there in frankfurt. it was pretty much the same thing across europe. over to new york where the dow jones is putting on an impressive 1.03%.

the euro trading up. eads has good news for investors. profits up by 19% last year. >> defense giant bae did not take as much of a toll a stock. >> the forecast is also positive. >> for eads, 2012 could have been worse. despite production and delivery problems, technical glitches, and a merger that never got off the ground, the bottom line was solid. the ceo said its airbus unit set a new sales record. >> we have a strong revenue growth overall for the entire group of 15%. operating margins have been

considerably higher. i would say we are well on our flight path towards our target of around 10% return on sales in 2015. >> the outlook is solid largely because carriers are updating their fleets. airbus and its u.s. rival can barely keep up with demand. even battery problems on boeing 's dreamliner and production problems with airbus have done nothing to dent demand. >> more international news for you now. 10 people have been wounded in a suicide bombing in kabul. >> witnesses say the bomber crawled underneath a bus when he detonated the bomb appeared the bus was carrying afghan army personnel. the taliban have claimed responsibility. >> the incident has again raised questions about afghan forces

assuming responsibility for security by the end of next year. >> the latest round of talks over iran's disputed nuclear program have drawn to a close. >> while there was a breakthrough in negotiations it has extent, tehran says a turning point has been reached. world powers say they will ease sanctions on iran if the country will accept limitations on in richmond. iran has rejected fears that material process there could be used to make nuclear weapons. the sides have agreed to meet again in april. coming up after a short break, we will have more coverage of the pope's farewell to the catholic church. >> plus, the latest in german soccer. stay tuned.

>> welcome back. germany, in the shape of martin luther, provided spark for the protestant revolution. >> there were hopes that benedict xvi would finally foster more unity. >> but there was disappointment as papacy saw no significant to melt -- developments. >> it was a moment of hope for many catholics and protestants. after centuries of division between the two branches of the christian faith. in 2011, pope benedict paid a visit to st. augustine's

monastery in central germany. the head of the catholic church was joined by the country's top protestant clergyman. benedick became the first pope to hold a service in a german protestant church. it was a symbolic day. five centuries earlier, the monastery was home to the young monk martin luther, who went on to launch the protestant reformation. >> in our first ecumenical service here, we must together bear witness to the living god and, thus, give the world the answer it needs. >> pope benedict warned against the church making token gestures. many saw that as an indication he would not push for shared communion, a celebration of the eucharist, any time soon. the pontiff did not mention the name martin luther once during his service. but later he did refer to luther

behind closed doors in meeting with german protestant leaders. he gave germany's top protestant a sense of hope coming away from the meeting. >> it may be possible to come together freely. to celebrate communion together. >> it was not [inaudible] again, benedict seemed to be reaching out, saying that baptism was a bond that all christians shared, but many protestants felt that was talking down to them. and that the pope viewed catholicism is the only true faith. as he prepares to step down as pontiff, protestants are still critical of benedict.

the pope focus his energies in a different direction, moving to mend fences with orthodox christians. in 2006, he visited istanbul to call on the patriarch of constantinople, patriarch bartholomew is the first among equals. patriarch and haunted promised to work on unification, a highly significant about, but the pope did not get that far with the russian orthodox church. reconciliation will have to wait. meanwhile, he tried to win back anglicans to the church. the ordination of female priests divided moderate and conservative anglicans for decades. eventually, anglicans let in female priests. some conservatives rejoined the catholic church over the issue. benedict let them join and keep some of their spiritual heritage. a momentous appointment -- the dick gave a german bishops top job last year, the job didn't it held before he became pope. now, he supports dialogue with

anglicans. he will keep reconciliation on the next pope policy agenda. benedict has disappointed many who hoped for more. eight years of pope benedict xvi had not united the divided face. >> joining us now in studio is the editor-in-chief of the catholic news agency in germany. how do you think history will look back at benedict's time as pope? >> i do not think of that this will be seen as one of the strong points in his papacy. i think he had a much stronger points, like the discussion with atheists, with philosophers. he himself is more a philosopher and theologian than a politician. church politics was not his strong point. >> there's been a lot of speculation that the resignation had more to do with these scandals that have rocked the

church. what is your take on that? >> i think it is absolutely absurd. could he was head of the department with the congregation of face, and during 25 years, he had everything on his desk that was about scandals in the vatican, so he knew about it for at least the last 30 years. if he would have had to resign, he would have done that much earlier than now. >> a to was not a case of him reaching an age where he felt that he could not handle this task anymore tackling the sort of scandals? >> i take his word that he used when he resigned -- he said there is so much change in the world today, and the church is so much shaken by the change that he does not feel able to steer the ship of st. peter anymore in these choppy waters. i think that is more probably the reason for his resignation.

>> the last time a poll preside was centuries ago, very different times. what does apple do now? what will he do? will he need a security service? >> i do not think he will need a security service because he is going to live in a monastery. the monastery is right in the vatican, so he has two sets of walls of around him, the vatican walls and the monastery walls. he does not have to be protected other than that. >> thank you very much for joining us in the studio. coming up, we will take a look at tonight's big soccer clash in the german cup. >> first, a roundup of other stories making headlines. >> at least 19 people have been killed in a fire at an indoor market in india. the blaze broke out in a six- story building in calcutta. police said all the victims were workers and described the building as an illegal market for plastic products. it is thought that an electrical fault sparked the flames. >> a shooting at a factory in

switzerland has left three people dead and seven wounded. it happened at a wood processing plant. police say the suspected gunman, who is among the dead, was a company employee who had no record of causing trouble. >> 10 people have been wounded in a suicide bombing in the afghan capital. witnesses said the bomber crawled underneath a bus where he dedicated his device. the bus was carrying afghan army personnel. the taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack. >> moving on to the sports news now, it is cut week in german soccer. tonight's fixtures include the hugely anticipated showdown between and -- bayern munich dortmund. the teams are battling it out for a place in the last four, but for many, it feels like the cup final. >> they have been here before. bayern munich have lifted the

trophy 15 times, but this match is about more than statistics. it is about prestige. >> i do not need a big night football. i just want to get through. >> dortmund have won the cup three times. they beat last year and what a vp. >> we want to be a tough opponent again. >> bayern munich has what appears to be an unassailable lead. they are now 17 points ahead of dortmund, but they have not beaten dortmund in a head-to- head in three years. their most recent encounter ended in a drop. >> we respect dortmund, no doubt about it, but this season, we have improved a lot, and they look a bit more vulnerable. >> but dortmund do have is the polish director who has scored in each of dortmund's last three matches against bayern munich.

he has been in blistering form and is one of the league's top scorers. >> we do have ambitions in this competition. we do not just want to show up. we want to get through to the next round. >> bayern munich against dortmund. the stage is set for a tantalizing showdown. >> and a final piece of news for you -- the best-selling french author, human rights advocate, and diplomat stephane hessell has died. -- hessel has died. in 2010, he penned the best selling s.a. "time for out rich," -- essay, "time for outrage."

>> this sharp-witted man in his 90's worked to encourage young people. his essay became a surprise global best seller and an inspiration for the global occupy movement. >> when i meet young people who are 20 now, i think they have another 70 years to live. for them, it is clear they have to get involved now to improve this world. >> hessel was speaking from experience. born in berlin, he grew up in paris. during the nazi occupation of france, he joined the french resistance. he was caught, tortured, and deported to a concentration camp where he narrowly escaped execution. after the war, he became a diplomat, helping to write one of the most influential texts of

the 20th century, the universal declaration of human rights. he was a steadfast optimist until the end. alabama humans have the strength to overcome anything that is thrown at them. >> stephane hessel dedicated his life to defending the values of democracy. >> recapping our top stories -- pope benedict xvi bid farewell to thousands of people at the vatican today as he steps down from the church tomorrow officially. >> a very emotional farewell. also the italian president has canceled a meeting with germany's top candidate after he called two of italy's leaders clowns. >> that is all we have time for now. please stay tuned to dw for more news and information.